Women are no longer expected to be confined to the four walls of their homes. Whether for economic reasons or in the interest of being independent, women are now part of the workforce and are increasingly stepping into domains which were considered male bastions. This transition has not been smooth and is paved with struggles and battles at the individual level and at a systemic level. Right from lack of basic resources like the existence of washrooms to public and workspaces being unsafe, there have been and continue to be many layers to the concept of women and paid work. (Since women have been performing unpaid work for centuries)

In this context, I think the law on tackling sexual harassment of women in the workplace, plays an important role in ensuring that women continue to be part of the workspaces. Right from the judgement of the Supreme Court in Vishakha v State of Rajasthan to the Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, concrete steps have been taken to encourage women to continue working.

The law mandates employers to ensure that their workplaces are free from sexual harassment. To this end, it is imperative that there are conversations at the workplace about what constitutes sexual harassment, why is this a concern, understanding gender and patriarchy, what the law and policies say and finally the system for redressal in case someone faces sexual harassment at the workplace. This also cannot be a one-off interaction and must be had at regular intervals. Each workplace must have a policy document outlining its stand on the issue and the mechanism for redressal. These steps, to some extent, deal with the prevention part of the law.

The system for dealing with complaints must be robust and should inspire confidence in all parties. That is the key to ensuring that as and when women face sexual harassment, they have the trust and confidence to raise their voices and seek redressal as per law. This needs to be a fair, sensitive, unbiased, non-judgemental, time-bound and confidential process.

The law is setting out examples of behaviours which can be construed to be sexually harassing, however, it leaves it to the experience of the woman receiving the said behaviour. It is also important to understand that the nature of workplaces varies. From being unorganised to being organised, from the public sector to the private sector, from being public dealing to desk work and so on and so forth. The law attempts to bring within its fold all such workplaces and all possible reasons a woman will be in a workplace. This includes paid, unpaid, contractual, temporary, permanent and volunteering situations to name a few.

It is, however, required to be said that the ideal situation (I refrain from using the term utopia, since I hope that this is achievable) would be one where laws like the present one are not required until such time, it is important to ensure that the law is implemented and adhered to in letter and spirit and that it keeps up with the changing times.

Anubha Rastogi is a practising lawyer based in Mumbai